Windows 10: Can somebody help me figure out running an old DOS program of mine in Windows 10?

I am aware that this was easier to do back in Windows XP and Windows 7, but my machine is now on 10 and I just came across a folder with all of the files for my old accounting program for a business that I had until I sold it in 2004 that I'd like to see if I can. It was some cool software that had a few special features aimed at companies that manufacture products. It has stuff like Bill of Materials that tells it how much of which of your raw materials in your Inventory, how much in-house labor and how much outside labor it takes to produce you sellable products. It also offers a Shop Orders module that lets you tell your shop workers how many of what product to make and they can then tell you how many they made so that you can decide it you want to skip making the rest for now or if you want to reschedule them after more raw materials arrive.

Anyway, enough on that.
My question came about since this program is an exe that opens in DOS and there are also some other parts of it that are also exe files.
It would open and run just by clicking on the vigilant.exe program file that I found on the Windows 98 machine in My Document. In there is a folder full of files for the program. But of course, when I click that same file on this Windows 10 pc now that I pasted it into a DOC folder, it just pops saying This APP can't run on your PC



I've found some forum postings of work-arounds to make DOS programs work in Windows 10. I made a WORD Doc for myself as notes about doing that which I'll paste in a Reply to keep this Question a little shorter so that future viewing doesn't take so much scrolling.
But, my main Question remains and maybe someone knows how this program could be run just to look at things and think of my past? I don't really want to use it anymore, but it wouldn't even open certain features on the old Windows 98 machine, probably since it wasn't truly running in DOC but just in a DOS window in Windows? Their support guy told me today that the feature I want needs to be "installed" to work, so even though the files are in the same folder as the main program's exe file, that's why it won't work.
I know NOTHING about DOS or "installing" things in it but at least he told me which 5 of the many files that I find in the folder need to be "installed".
Does any of this make sense to you? If it does, you can probably help me and I'd really appreciate it.
Since I'm no longer in the business that I used this in, I didn't want to open a support case and pay them to help me resolve it. What was cool was that when I told them my old company's name, he saw it in their database from 25+ years ago.



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:)

 

running old program on win 10

See:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15078/windows-make-older-programs-compatible
• https://www.howtogeek.com/228689/how-to-make-old-programs-work-on-windows-10/

 

help to remote connect

not sure how to use both programs u 2 suggested, i need more helpful steps thanks

 

Old Program Won't Run on Windows 10

Hi Reilly

Sometimes, programs are just too old run on modern versions; especially if you are running a 64 bit version of Windows 10.

Your suggestion of installing in a virtual machine under a compatible version of Windows, such as Windows XP sounds like the best idea.

Here are steps how to do that:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/setup-a-virtua...

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised
on the site before you decide to download and install it.